LOT Polish Airlines flight delay and cancellation compensation

LOT Polish Airlines flight delay and cancellation claims pay €250 to €600 per passenger under EU261, or £220 to £520 under UK261. You qualify if you land three or more hours late at your final destination, if LOT cancels with under 14 days' notice, or if it denies you boarding. A cheap fare pays the same.

Does EU261 cover a LOT Polish Airlines flight delay into Warsaw?

LOT Polish Airlines is Poland's flag carrier, hubbed at Warsaw and a member of the Star Alliance. It holds a Polish operating licence, which makes it an EU carrier, so EU261 reaches both directions:

• Departures from any EU/EEA airport — covered whoever operates the flight
• Arrivals into the EU/EEA from a third country — covered because LOT is an EU airline, which brings its North American and Asian inbound flights inside the regulation
• UK routes — UK261 applies to departures from the UK and to arrivals into the UK on LOT

Warsaw connects western Europe with the Americas and Asia. On a single booking, compensation is measured by total lateness at the final destination, and the claim follows the operating carrier.

How much does LOT pay for a delay or cancellation?

Compensation is due when you arrive at your final destination three or more hours late, when a flight is cancelled with less than 14 days' notice, or when you are denied boarding on an oversold flight after checking in on time.

• EUR 250 — routes of 1,500 km or less, such as Warsaw to Berlin
• EUR 400 — intra-EU routes over 1,500 km and other routes of 1,500 to 3,500 km
• EUR 600 — routes over 3,500 km, covering the intercontinental network from Warsaw

Article 7(2) allows the top band to be halved where a re-routed long-haul flight arrives under four hours late. UK261 uses GBP 220 / GBP 350 / GBP 520. The amount is fixed by distance, not the fare, and each passenger on the booking claims separately.

When LOT Polish Airlines doesn't have to pay

No compensation is due where the airline proves extraordinary circumstances that could not have been avoided even with all reasonable measures — severe weather, air-traffic-control restrictions, airport closures, security incidents or bird strikes.

The burden of proof is on the airline, and an unevidenced assertion is not a defence. A strike by LOT's own pilots or cabin crew is generally not extraordinary, whereas strikes by air-traffic controllers or third-party airport staff usually are. Routine technical faults found during ordinary maintenance normally remain the airline's responsibility, even where they are described as unforeseeable.

How to claim from LOT Polish Airlines

Keep the booking reference, boarding passes, the disruption notice, and receipts for anything you paid for yourself. Note the actual arrival time at your final destination.

Response times vary and lengthen after mass-disruption events. If a claim is refused without proper substantiation, it can be escalated to Poland's civil aviation authority for departures from Poland, to the enforcement body of the departure state elsewhere in the EU, or taken to court within the local limitation period.

What it costs

The eligibility check is free. If we recover your compensation we charge a fixed EUR 39 success fee — the same whether you're owed EUR 250 or EUR 600 — and the airline's payment goes to you. No win, no fee.

How to claim LOT Polish Airlines compensation

Start with the flight itself. Our free flight check reads the recorded times for your LOT Polish Airlines flight and tells you which band it falls in, in about two minutes.

For the law behind the figure, the flight delay compensation guide covers arrival delays and the cancellation compensation guide covers a flight that never operated. If LOT Polish Airlines has already refused you, the case law summary sets out what the courts have said about the usual excuses.